Kreuziger’s attack: “There was no plan before the stage. When the final climb began, Roman said he was feeling strong and wanted to attack. I thought it might be a good opportunity: if no one chased him down, he could take the stage win and move up int eh GC. If they worked to bring him back, I could save energy in the group and then attack at the stage finish. Roman did a great job today, and so did the rest of my team mates, as they have from Day One. I’m very happy with each and every one of them.”

Time bonuses: “The time bonus at the stage finish was important. Perhaps I could have attacked 1 km from the finish, but they might have come back, and someone else might have taken the stage win, and I’d have had the same time as everyone else. It was better to take the time bonus. Give the stage finish, I thought the more intelligent option was to wait for the final sprint. Tirreno-Adriatico always comes down to a matter of seconds.”

The rebirth of Alberto Contador?: “I just carry on working as I always have. Sometimes I win, sometimes I don’t, but wouldn’t talk about a rebirth. I just get on with doing my job.”

Duel with Quintana: “The duel wasn’t just with Quintana. In the final few metres, I was disputing the stage win with Quintana, but there are other very strong riders here.”

Tomorrow’s stage: “Today the stage was very demanding. We expended a lot of energy. I hope I can recover well, and tomorrow I’ll try to gain more time on Kwiatkowski. He’s strong and it won’t be easy.”

Michal Kwiatkowski (Omega Pharma - Quick-Step)

Teamwork: “It was a hard stage, but fighting against the best climbers in the world is always hard. I’m really happy about what my team mates did, Wouter Poels pulled for 7 km. It was first mountain finish we have done together this year, and I was really impressed with him. Then Rigoberto [Urán] took over. We rode at our own pace. I didn’t lose so much time to Alberto but he had a really good day and congratulations to him, but

I’m really happy that I defended the jersey.”

Tomorrow’s stage: “I think tomorrow is going to be the last opportunity for the climbers to gain time, and I think everything is going to be close, but you see everyone looking for time bonuses. Those 10 secs are really important, so winning the stage may be more important than dropping other riders. I expect some big attacks form the best climbers and we’ll see how it goes.”

The time trial: “We [Kwiatkowski and Contador] both rode the time trial in [the Tour of] the Algarve [NOTE: Kwiatkowski beat Contador by 20 seconds over 13.6 km], so I’m pretty confident, but you never know: it’s the last day after a long and hard Tirreno-Adriatico, probably our time-trailling skills may be not so important. Who’s going to save more energy. I don’t know. I feel pretty confident about the ITT but you never know, you can have a good day or a bad day.